After Jenkins received yet another award, laughter broke out as he rose again.
“Yes, we’re very proud of Farish,” Smith quipped.
‘THIS IS WHY NO ONE LIKES ME’
As Smith announced various awards, he listed the full name of the award as well as the full name of the recipient’s professorship—a challenging task if one is not well-acquainted with names that can be phonetically difficult.
After several stumbles, Smith paused and finally gave up on announcing Area Dean for Environmental Science and Engineering Steven C. Wofsy full title—Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric and Environmental Science.
“I’ll skip that one,” he said to laughter from the faculty. “This is why no one likes me.”
Following a joke on the easy pronunciation of his name—“This is why I have a simple name like Mike Smith”—he paused when reviewing the large number of faculty accepted into the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
“Too many names here,” Smith said.
—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Julia L. Ryan can be reached at jryan@college.harvard.edu.